Strange Affection
by xueling
Summary: He seems to have a strange affection for pawing people's eyes.


_A/N: At this point in time, Chapter 915, this is manga-safe. Whether it remains manga-safe for very long is another discussion altogether._

* * *

Unsteadily, Dai walks towards Kansuke, who has his arms open welcomingly, even though he's currently watching news coverage of the recent police raid.

"You're off work now, Kan-chan," Yui lightly chastises, but sits down beside him to watch the news anyway.

"Old habits, old habits," Kansuke says before catching Dai staring intently at his face, "what is it?"

Dai continues staring, and Kansuke squirms uncomfortably before averting his attention to the news. He knows that Dai is looking at his eye—or what is left of it.

After wriggling out of his father's grasp, Dai nestles himself in his mother's lap.

"Yes?"

He peers at one half of Yui's face for a long time, before blinking and turning to the other half. Unsatisfied, he extends a hand to explore. Yui has to forcefully shut an eye to prevent Dai from jabbing her eye. It's not long before Dai attempts to gouge her other eye out.

Dai sits in front of the glass cabinet doors, leaving his parents alone for a while. He gazes at his reflection, pointing at one eye before pointing at the other. When Dai raises a hand to his face, Yui scoots on her bum towards him. But her worries that he was going to jab his eye were unfounded, Dai only rubbed his eyes with both hands.

A befuddled Dai makes his way back to Kansuke, and scratches his head.

"What is it?" Kansuke demands shortly.

"Kan-chan," she gently berates, "he's just curious."

Dai hesitantly reaches out his fingers in the direction of his scar, which meets a swift denial from Kansuke.

Yui sighs and removes Kansuke's hand from Dai's wrist. An apprehensive glance in Yui's direction later, Dai is well on his way feeling his way around his father's cross scar.

"Hey, don't jab my good eye!" exclaims Kansuke, and Dai, now obedient, pulls back.

* * *

"He seems to have a strange affection for pawing people's eyes," the kindergarten teacher comments as Dai is putting on his shoes, "he gazes so intently at people's eyes that it's somewhat unsettling."

"Ah," Yui manages to say, "that's 'cause his father lost one in an accident."

The kindergarten teacher cringes involuntarily, "ouch, that must've been really bad."

Yui offers a ghost of a smile, "that was a long time ago."

* * *

"Sorry for imposing Uehara-san, but the little brat made too much noise about wanting to come over and play with Dai."

"Don't mention, don't mention, please come in! The pest extermination cannot be good for children," Yui smiles as she welcomes them in.

"Greet auntie."

"Hi auntie," Hayami greets from behind his mother, Hirano.

"Hello!" screams Dai as he rushes out from his room, thankfully no longer in his pajamas.

Hayami steps out from the shadows with a crooked grin, "hello Dai!"

Yui does a double take when she realizes that Hayami has an eye patch. Lazy eye, she gathers.

"Lazy eye," Hirano informs, "but I think you must know that already."

"Why?"

"Dai's one of the two kids who treat him well in school," she shrugs, "can't be helped really, most of them are too young to understand."

"Dai! You have to drink your milk!" insists Kansuke as he comes out of the kitchen, cup in hand.

Dai takes the cup and gulps down his milk.  
"Good boy, then you'll grow up tall and strong!" he praises while ruffling Dai's hair.

Yui has to stifle a giggle, "Dai would. He would understand, though I don't know if he knows what lazy eye is."

"Oh!" Hirano gasps when he catches sight of Kansuke's scar.

"Dai would understand."

"You're Hayami, aren't you?" Kansuke asks as he sits down with them.

"Yes, uncle!" Hayami replies before raising his head to look at Kansuke, straight in the eye, without flinching like most children.

"Hello uncle! You have one eye too!"

Yui scurries over, "ah, that's not very right, Hayami. Hayami has two eyes, just that one has to be covered so that you'll be able to see well with both eyes next time. Uncle here really only has one eye."

"Oh! So uncle only has one eye?"

"Yeah, uncle only has one eye. It won't recover like Hayami's," Kansuke manages to gruffly choke out before gathering the cup and stalking off.

"No wonder you said that Dai would understand."

Kansuke dips his head, "I'm sorry for scaring your child."

"He wasn't even scared though?"

"Kindly ignore him, most children are terrified of him, so he's made a habit out of apologizing," Yui interjects.

"Wait, aren't you the famous one-eyed police officer?" Hirano blurts before catching herself, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, don't worry about it. I get called that all the time, just without the famous. And I'm the fellow with the cross scar."

Hirano turns excitedly to Yui, "so you must be his wife! I mean, what am I saying, I knew that! Uh, what was it? The serial murders, Fuurinkazan?"

"You've indeed gotten the right person," Kansuke interrupts before Hirano can call more details to mind.

"My younger brother is in the police force," she explains, "you're very well known."

"Apparently people gossip about me, nothing new." Kansuke drawls.

"Kan-chan!"

* * *

"Pardon my curiosity, but I can't help…" Hirano allows her voice to trail off as Hayami spills the rice on himself. Yui offers Hirano the tissue box, which she takes gratefully.

"It was an accident," Kansuke pauses to catch a breath, before looking straight at Dai, "I was trying to catch a parole jumper but I got caught in an avalanche."

Dai eagerly nods.


End file.
